Which neoclassical composer wrote the opera 'The Rake's Progress'?

The neoclassical composer who wrote the opera The Rake’s Progress was Igor Stravinsky. The opera premiered in 1951 and is one of Stravinsky’s major works in his later, explicitly neoclassical period.

Written in English, the opera has three acts and an epilogue. Its libretto was created by the poets W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, and its plot was inspired by William Hogarth’s series of paintings and engravings A Rake’s Progress, produced in the 1730s. The story follows Tom Rakewell, whose pursuit of pleasure leads him into ruin under the manipulation of Nick Shadow, who is ultimately revealed as the Devil.

Stravinsky’s neoclassicism did not mean simple imitation of 18th-century music. Instead, he adapted older forms, balanced phrases and operatic conventions through his own sharply modern rhythm, harmony and orchestration. The work is therefore often discussed alongside his Pulcinella and other compositions that reinterpret earlier musical styles. The other options were important 20th-century composers, but none wrote this opera.